Official blog of the Sacramento Progressive Alliance, the Central Valley's largest grassroots progressive organization with more than 5,000 members

Monday, March 26, 2012

Cesar Chavez Day marks 50th. anniversary of the founding of the UFW

Cesar Chavez Day is a state holiday in
California – one of eight states to recognize the date, and one of the few holidays in the nationdedicatedto a labor
leader. Sacramento and dozens of cities, counties and labor
federations will celebrate the life of Cesar Chavez on March 31, 2012,

Mexican
labor leader Jose Humberto Montes de Oca of the SME, electrical workers union
will lead the Sacramentomarch on
March 31. Montes do Oca and the SME in Mexico are fighting for survival
against a repressive government. In central Mexico 44,000 Electrical Power Workers (SME) were
fired to privatize the industry and destroy the union.

This
year, 2012 is the 50th. anniversary of the founding of the
U.F.W.The Cesar Chavez
celebrations focus on the struggle
for union rights and justice in the fields of California.Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip Vera
Cruz, and others, César created the United Farm Workers(UFW) the first successful union of
farm workers inU.S. history.There had been more than ten prior
attempts to build a farm workers union.

Each of the prior attempts to organize farm worker unions were destroyed
by racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union that incorporated
the strategies of social movements and community organizingand allied itselfwith the churches, students,and organized labor.The successful creation of the UFW
changed the nature of labor organizingin the Southwestand
contributed significantly to the birth of Latino politics in the U.S.

Today, under the leadership of UFW president Arturo Rodriguez, only
about 8,000 farm workers enjoy
benefits on the job. Wages and benefit in farm labor have again been reduced to
the pre union levels.Unionized
workers are incorporated
into California's educational, health and civic communities.The UFW has shown unions that
immigrants canand must be
organized.

Chavez and the UFW are best known helping
to create instrumental role in passing the California Agricultural Labor
Relations Act in 1975 under then Governor Gerry Brownwhich gives workers collective bargaining rights. The law was made necessary by the
assault on the UFW of the Teamsters Union.While workers are often able to win elections under the
ALRB, they seldom can win a contract.Growers stall and delay until the workers leave the area.

César Chavez, Dolores
Huerta,Philip Vera Cruz, and
others deliberately created a multiracial organization, Mexican,Mexican American, Filipino,
African-American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Arab workers, among others, have
been part of the UFW.This cross racial
organizingwas necessary in order
to combat theprior divisions and
exploitations of workers based upon race and language. Dividing the workers on
racial and language lines always left the corporations the winners.

In the 60's Chávez became the pre-eminent civil rights leader for the
Mexican and Chicano workers, helping with local union struggles throughout the
nation.He worked tirelessly to
make people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer
working conditions. It is a testament to Cesar Chavez's skills and courage that
the UFW even survived. Theywere
opposed by major interests in corporate agriculture including the Bruce Church
and Gallo Corporations as well as the leadership of the Republican Party then
led byRonald Reagan.Workers werefired, beaten, threatened and even
killed in pursuit of union benefits . Non unionfarm workers todaycontinue to live onsub-poverty wages while producing the abundant crops in the richest
valley, in the richest state in the richest nation in the world.

In response to corporate power, Cesar
developed new strategies, such as the boycott, based uponhis personalcommitment tonon-violence in the tradition of Ghandi andMartin Luther King Jr.CésarChavez died in his
sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma, Arizona.

Today Mexican, Mexican American and Puerto Rican union leadership is commonin our major cities and in severalindustries and Latino union leaders
increasingly play an important role in local, state, and national elections. For myselfand others, the UFW was a school for organizing.Hundreds of activists in labor and
community organizations owe their skills to UFW training and experience.Along with improved working
conditions, salaries, and benefits for the unionized workers, training this cadre of organizers
remains a major legacy of the UFW.

César taught us that all organizations have problems, that all
organizations are imperfect. In the last decade several books have been written
criticizing the Chavez legacy.

In the midst ofseveral life and death struggles over power against corporate
agriculture and the political power of the state, the UFW executive committee
did not develop democratic union structures . Marshall Ganz’s book, Why David Sometimes Wins:
leadership, organization and strategy in the California Farmworker Movement
(2009) describes these issues well.

Frank Bardake, in Trampling Out the Vintage (2011) spends a great deal of time
on the purges of UFW activists, organizers, and volunteersin 1977 -1981 period.(See the review here on Talking Union).
While the purges are at times presented as anticommunist
decisionsby Chavez,many of the dismissals were for lack of
loyalty to Chavez and his decisions as the final arbiter of all issues in the
union.Some of the “purges”were based upon left politics, and some
of the dismissals were based upon other differences, including differing views
of the best direction for the union.There were dismissals andstaff leavings for a variety ofreasons.Some of the
most significant dismissals were not about left nor right, but were about
issues of both policy differences and personal loyalties.

Building popular organizations while
messybuilds people's power and
democracy. In creating the UFW Chavez organized thousands into a unionand inspired millions.Todaychildren
in schoolsstudy his life-
although such study is prohibited in Arizona and severely limited in Texas as
“revolutionary”, or anti American.Many curriculum packages
for schools stress his emphasis on
service to others.The service
side of Cesar’s work was certainly inspiring.

The organizing side of the UFW legacy changed the Southwest andorganized labor.In a 1988 campaign and fastCesar focused attention on the many dangerous problems of pesticides
used in the fields.Artists have
captured his image in hundreds of ways.Schools, parks, and highways have been named for him.Establishing Cesar Chavez holiday in
California and other states has increased knowledge of his contributions.

The movement led by Cesarcreated a union and reduced the oppression of farm workers.Many people,descendents of earlier generations of farm workers, learned
to take a stand for justice.We
learned to not accept poor jobs, poor pay,unsafe working conditions as natural or inevitable.Rather, these are social creations
which can be changed through organizing for economic and political power.Dolores Huerta continues her important
education and organizing work throughout the nation.

Now, thousands of new immigrants harvest the crops and only a small
percent are in unions.The new
generations of immigrants and migrant labor hardly know Chavez’ name nor his
contributions.Yet, in other regionsimmigrants are being organized into
unions such as Justice for Janitors, by activists who learned their organizing
skills working with the UFW. And, Latino political leaders often made their
first commitments on a UFW picket line.

The generation that
created the UFW is passing. A new generation of political activists, mostly
within the Democratic Party, have emerged since the Chavez generations.In the 2006 massive immigrant rights
movements,several new organizing
practices emerged.The
organizing of these demonstrations was significantly assisted by persons
trained within the UFW.A new,
significant Latinounion and
political base has been created.

Chavez'
legacy to popular struggles, toChicano/Mexicano
self determination and to unions for the immigrant workers is significant.The union taught us how to organize for
power and for justice.He is
present in all of our work.I plan
to march onMarch 31,2012in memory of Cesar Chavez'
contributions to building a more democratic society for working people. You can
find our more about this remarkable leader at www.ufw.orgAnd, http://www.chavezfoundation.org/

And,
http://www.farmworkermovement.org/

Duane Campbell is a
Professor (emeritus) of Bilingual/Multicultural Education at Calif. State University-Sacramento
and the author of Choosing Democracy; a practical guide to multicultural
education. 4th. edition. (Allyn
and Bacon,2010) and Chair of Sacramento DSA.

1 comment:

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